


Balance

by VintagexTypewriter



Series: One Republic [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25295542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VintagexTypewriter/pseuds/VintagexTypewriter
Summary: Neva'ra Ordo has the 'pleasure' of being the first Mandalorian Jedi to be apart of the Jedi Order in almost a thousand years.As tensions grow in the Galaxy, Neva'ra has one of the most important decisions she could ever make just ahead of her: does she stand aside or does she join her best friend, the 'Chosen One' as decalred by the High Council of the Jedi Order, and find herself right in the middle of it all.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker/Original Female Character(s)
Series: One Republic [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1834234
Kudos: 3





	Balance

The dreams are always the same.

Neva’ra stands in a purple void, the colour so dark she called it black at first before she registered the slightly shifting tones in the space around her, with only the pale white dots spattered in the air around her breaking up the darkness even if they gave off no light themselves.

She can walk in any direction and never reach the end, or even get close enough to the odd stars that litter the landscape.

It used to scare her, being in this void alone, until she met the other woman.

The other woman appeared to Neva’ra one night, shimmering into existence as the world warped around her, and since then the other woman has been a permanent fixture in the void of Neva’ra's mindscape.

She wears a black cloak attached to shoulder pauldrons with the hood drawn up to shadow her face. The cloak is open, bellowing in the nonexistent wind showing off the red combat suit and equally dark coloured red arm guards covering the dark grey flight suit under them that are skin tight and show off the feminine figure of the Jedi, and it's obvious she is one from the two lightsabers clipped at her hips, paired with black knee high reinforced boots to protect her lower half.

The tight flight suit I'd the only way Neva’ra is able to tell the figure across from her every night is a woman because covering her face, barely able to be seen from the shadows cast by the hood, is a mask with a T shaped visor.

Neva’ra does not know who the woman is, she never speaks, never moves, never gives any sign that she acknowledges Neva’ra is there.

She has never been able to touch the other woman. Every time Neva’ra has tried something has stopped her whether it be her waking up or the force stopping her hand from wrapping around the other woman's crossed arms.

Today though, today Neva’ra plans to change that.

Neva’ra blinks her eyes open, standing from the knelt position she was in before coming into this meditative trance, and swiftly turns on her heel to face the other woman, her padawan braid lightly smacking her in the face from the speed as she marched with the faint sound of her heels clicking in her brown knee high boots against a ground that was both there and not, coming to stand directly in front of the mysterious woman.

Today, today is going to be the day she makes contact.

Her brown eyes try to drill into where she thinks the other woman's eyes are under the mask and she doesn't break eye contact as she slowly lifts one golden honey coloured hand up from her side with the intent to place it in the center of the other woman's chest.

Her hand gets about halfway to its destination before Neva'ra starts to feel a pressure against it, pushing her away with as much force as she exerts and never any more.

Gritting her teeth, Neva’ra pressed on against the invisible force pushing against her, working against her, until it feels like the oxygen is being pulled from the nonexistent air around her, choking her but she still presses on.

She WILL make contact with the mystery woman today.

Her hand inches closer and with each millimeter closer it gets to the other woman's chest, the pressure on Neva’ra's body builds until she can see her arm shaking from the strain and it feels like there is a lead weight sitting on her own chest constricting her breath until it comes and goes in shallow gasps.

But she is so close, the closest she's ever been, and she can already imagine the cold biting feel of the metal beneath her fingers and palm before all the air is sucked from her lungs and something shoves her away.

Gasping for breath, Neva’ra slowly curls the one hand that caught her on the red carpet of the meditation room she and her master, a blue skin and white facial marked Togruta named Shaan Madran, had commandeered for the early afternoon on Coruscant in the Jedi Temple.

With the other hand, the one that hadn't caught her from falling to the ground from the force of being pushed from her own mindscape, Neva’ra can feel just how soaked with sweat her tanned white top as she tries to catch her breath, finally able to draw in a lungful of air.

Looking up from under the damp locks of black hair, the ones that aren't stuck to her forehead from the sweat, Neva’ra can't help but feel jealous of her master and just how at peace and serene the older woman looks illuminated by the ray's coming in from the large windows behind her master's still body.

"Patience, Padawan." Her master's voice always sounds so calm and smoky. "The Force-"

"-Will reveal all in time." Neva’ra repeats in a monotonous tone what Master Madran has told her time and time again after taking Neva’ra under her wing for tutelage. "But I want to know who she is." Neva’ra let out a huff and crossed her arms over her chest after pushing herself back into a sitting position with her legs crossed under her.

Master Madran let's out a deep sigh, slowly opening her eyes and meeting Neva’ra's deep brown with her bright orange. "And one day the Force will show you." She spoke with the voice of a woman who had experienced much. "Now, come." Master Madran stood up from her own meditative stance with poise that it looked effortless while Neva’ra stumbled hastily to her own feet, "I do believe we should go for a walk."

Neva’ra couldn't help but think that the two of them, paired together as they walked the halls of the temple side by side on the way out to the large garden on the other side of the building, were completely different not just in species type but right down to their cores.

In the time she had been trained under Master Madran, never had the woman ever shown any signs of exhaustion; not even in her voice. Master Madran always stood ramrod straight, her head held high, her balck and white montrals pointed up to the sky, hand held in front of her and always covered by the long sleeves of her brown cloak, as she glided along the floor looking every bit of elegant royalty Neva’ra had only seen in passing or on the holovids.

Neva’ra looked like a womp rat, at least in her mind, every time she stood beside her master.

"Where would you like to walk?" Master Madran questioned Neva’ra as they stepped outside the temple, a light breeze cooling them both even in the middle of the afternoon when the sun on Coruscant was still high in the sky.

"Our tree?" Neva’ra supplied before following after her Master's leisurely pace.

Their tree was not really their tree but they both soon began to call it that as Master Madran and Neva’ra always found themselves walking in that direction any time they came to the garden together.

It was an old tree, and the oldest plant in the garden, dwarfing even the tallest of statues depicting a Jedi Master from the Old Republic, and the Force seemed stronger in the air like one could reach out and touch it and feel it dance through their fingers like free moving water. There is a ring of water surrounding it coming from the fountain towards the entrance to the gardens from where Neva’ra and her Master walked out like the architect knew to never cut down the tree and to make his symmetrical design around the weeping willow.

And there, under the old weeping willow, was a long wooden bench that Neva’ra had spent many an afternoon sat on that dark wooden bench, digging her chipped nails into the gouges angry at herself for not being as talented as the peers her own age having only started her training a mere two years ago when they had at least double that.

There, sitting on the bench, was where Neva’ra had first met Master Shaan.

She had all but raced out of her class, unable to deal with the whispers from her younger classmates, and by chance found herself outside in the gardens drawn to this exact tree, she didn’t want to say it was the Force that drew her here-at least, not when she was younger would she have wanted to admit that-but there was truly no other good explanation as to how she ended up under the weeping willow without knowing how to get there to begin with and was found by Master Madran, and the Togruta woman would later claim she was pushed by the Force to go on a walk that day in that particular spot.

After one conversation, Master Madran agreed to take Neva’ra on as a padawan and the rest, as they say, was history.

“Master Nu has told me you have been spending many hours as of late in the Archives.” Master Madran states as she sits beside Neva’ra, the younger girl sits with her legs crossed under her as she bashfully tucks a lock of hair behind her ear that had come loose with the cool breeze.

Neva’ra closes her eyes, resting one of her hands palm up on her knee and wiggling her fingers with a slight smile on her face as she feels the Force between her fingers, just barely there but she can still feel it. “I’ve been trying to see if anyone else is like me.” As in they also see what she does when they meditate.

Before Neva’ra came to the Temple, she remembers her void mindscape being just that; void, and it wasn’t until a freak accident back on her home planet when her Force abilities made themselves known and the mystery woman appeared.

Master Madran hummed and Neva'ra couldn’t help but peel open one of her eyes to look out of the corner of it at her straight backed teacher and the only sign that she was even affected by the steady breeze was the slight ruffling of her brown cloak and the swaying of the gold chain between her two long montrals. “Master Kenobi.” Master Madran slowly turned her head to face the side Neva’ra was sitting on. “It’s a pleasure to see you today with young Padawan Skywalker.” Neva’ra quickly sat herself up straighter to match her Master’s own posture as she swing her head to her right to watch as the new young Jedi Master with his controversial Padawan at his side, the young boy only a year older than her from what she heard had a scowl on his face as he tramped behind Master Kenobi.

“Master Madran.” Master Kenobi greeted the older Togruta woman with a cursory bow of the head before doing the same for Neva’ra. “Padawan Ordo.”

"Master Kenobi." Neva'ra greets her with her own half bow but goes back to focusing on the Padawan at the mans side.

She can count on both hands, and still have fingers left over, the amount of times she has encountered Anakin Skywalker and most of them had been in passing in the Archives or down the Temple halls as he went to the mandatory classes, that Neva'ra herself had to take when she first got to the Temple, the council ordered so he could catch up to his peers and she went to go find her own Master to train.

Neva'ra can remember the first time she met the other Padawan for it was a somber occasion; the funeral for the late Master Qui-Gon Jinn. 

Though she personally had never met the man, her Master considered him a dear friend and stood beside Obi-wan and his newly acquired Padawan as they stood silently and watched a wise man to be laid to rest.

That was where Neva'ra had first laid eyes on Anakin and had her first impressions: weird.

And her impression of him hadn't changed from that moment.

Neva'ra had heard the rumours from the other Padawan learners like herself that Anakin was getting special training from the other Masters, something that had never happened before, to help him catch up to the others of his age and that made Neva'ra jealous as she had to suffer through the beginning classes with Padawan learners much younger then her and only got out of them when Master Madran stumbled upon her in these very gardens and agreed to take her under her wing.

"Padawan Ordo," her master spoke up and Neva'ra almost smacked herself in the face with her Padawan braid from how quickly she snapped her head to look at her Master and taken her gaze away from Master Kenobi and his own Padawan, "why don't you take Padawan Skywalker on a trip around the gardens. I'm sure you would prefer that over listening to Master Kenobi and I catch up." Master Madran never even looked her way but still kept that regal air about her.

Uncross her own legs to hop off the bench, Neva'ra quickly bowed to Master Madran. "Okay Master." And turned to face Anakin, "Have you seen the galek trees yet?" When he shook his head no, Neva'ra grabbed his wrist with one of her hands, giving both Masters a proper bow, and took off to the fairest end of the garden where the silver leaf trees grew.

"These are from my home planet." Neva'ra explained letting go of Anakin's wrist to reach up and pull down a low hanging branch to bring the silver leaves closer for inspection. "I like coming to this part of the garden because it feels like home." It was her second favourite place in the whole gardens just after where she and Master Madran had met. "Not many jedi are welcomed back home but one was lucky enough to get galek tree seeds and bring them here." Neva'ra explained how the silver leaf tree got to the garden while quietly passing the branch to Anakin so he could get a closer look at it. "Where are you from?" That was a question Neva'ra had wanted to know as that seemed to be a question none of the other padawans were able to get an answer for as they had yet to spend any one on one time with Master Kenobi's first Padawan.

"Tatooine." He released the branch and both of them watched as it snapped back to where it had been before Neva'ra had grabbed it. "Where are you from?" He asked right back and Neva'ra bit her bottom lip slightly, bringing her hands up to pull her black hair in front of her shoulder so she could play with it as she answered his question.

"Mandalore." She mumbled expecting him to tease her like the other Padawans.

When she first arrived at the temple, Neva'ra had been very proud to both be Mando'ade and from Mandalore. Anytime anyone asked her where she was from she would hold her head high and, with a smile on her face, proudly proclaim to be from Mandalore and a direct descendant of Mandalore the Preserver-a fact that had been drilled into her for as long as she could remember. And the datacron that hung around her neck, hidden from all prying eyes with the symbol of her clan stamped on both sides, carried within it her complete family tree so that she could never forget where she came from.

That was when the bullying started and it didn't take long for Neva'ra to stop taking pride in who she was, who she was descendant of, and where she came from.

Mandalorians were no more than well trained thugs in the eyes of the galaxy.

"Where's that?" The question shocked Neva'ra and caused her to stop playing with her hair. Did he really not know, or was he just pretending so that he could bully her like the rest of the Padawans that were older than her or knew about the Mandalorian Wars?

"It's in the outer rim." Neva'ra answers before crouching down, and pulling Anakin with her to closely inspect the golden amber ferns that grew around the base of the galek tree. "Do you have anything like this on Tatooine?" She had never heard of that planet outside of the Masters mentioning that it was where Anakin was from.

"No." He mumbled out from beside her, reaching out with a hand to caress the leaves of the ferns. "It's all sand." There were a few moments of silence between them, the only noise coming from the fountain in the gardens that was barely a hum and the footsteps of people walking by them off in their own worlds, before Anakin opened his mouth to ask "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Why are you being nice to me?" Neva'ra shot back with wide innocent eyes.

"Most Padawans don't like to talk to me. They think I'm getting special treatment from the council and that Master Kenobi shouldn't be my Master." She hadn't heard the part about the fact Master Kenobi shouldn't be Anakin's teacher, so that was news to Neva'ra so she just shrugged her shoulders instead standing up and motioning for Anakin to follow her further into the gardens.

"They're just jealous." She had heard the mean whispers from the other Padawans, that thought they were being quiet but were really not, while she was studying in the library. "Before it was you they were talking about it was me." It wasn't often that the temple took in an older child and for there to be two in such a short amount of time should have been what people were talking about not who they were talking about. 

"Why would they talk about you?"

"Because I'm Mandalorian."

"And?" They stopped under a weeping willow and Neva'ra tried to sense with the Force if he was being genuine in his questioning if he was just trying to fool her.

The Force showed no signs that he was trying to fool her.

She humed, staring at Anakin and decided that her first impression of him, at the time, was appropriate but now needed to be changed because he was not who she expected.

"Neva'ra Ordo." She stuck her hand out for him to shake while a smile formed on her lips, her other hand coming up to brush her hair back behind her ear as a small gust of wind blew it in front of her face, and a mildly confused look came over his but he still accepted her handshake as, from over his shoulder Neva'ra could see Masters Madran and Kenobi walking down the path towards them.

"Anakin Skywalker." 

She could tell this would be the start of a wonderful friendship.

**Author's Note:**

> This is what I've been working on for the past two months instead of making any progress on my other story: Card-Sharp.
> 
> I have some plans for the future of this fic and hopefully I will be able to share them with all my readers.
> 
> Check me out at http://vintage-typewriter.tumblr.com/ for any and all future updates on this story or others.


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